Small SAQA Donation Quilts

 Earlier this year I made a couple of very small quilts for a couple of SAQA calls.  One was for the annual spotlight auction, a SAQA fundraiser associated with the annual conference.  I have a wonderful collection of spotlight auction quilts hanging in my office at work and I look forward to picking up a couple more every year.

This year I was experimenting more the the three-dimensional string idea I'd played around with in some wood and string sculptures a few years ago.  I love string art, and I for some reason have one million small grommets, so this seemed like a good opportunity to experiment with them together.  I have no idea where all the grommets came from, but I had a hard time getting them set evenly and I had a hard time getting them to go all the way through the quilt sandwich.  So I finished and donated the piece, but I have to figure out some other way to use up all the other million grommets.

Spring Fling, c. Shannon Conley 2026, 6"x8"


Much more fun was this piece I made for the SAQA New Mexico Trunk show call.  I didn't want to do a 3D thing because that makes it hard on the organizers/shippers who have to get the trunk show from one place to the next, so I decided to do another one of my "initial" quilts.  Since it was for the New Mexico show I decided on a NM-themed design.  It's also quite small, something like 7x10.

O Fair New Mexico, c. 2026, Shannon Conley, 7x10

Here it was during quilting,  you can sort of see the water soluble stabilizer that is over the open areas.  I use that during quilting and then soak it to leave open areas. You can see it a little better in the bigger view below.  I've used a couple of different kinds of the water soluble stabilizer,  this kind is very clear and dissolves a way pretty quickly.  It's a little plasticky and slightly flimsier to sew through, but you can see what's underneath it.  I've also used a kind that's white, looks more like a regular lightweight interfacing.  I find it easier to sew/pin/work with (the hand is more fabric like) but it doesn't dissolve quite as quickly.  Both work fine and this is what's in my stash at the moment!

A yucca is always an easy default for NM-themed things.  They're so beautiful.  We actually recently came back from a trip to Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks and saw the chaparral yuccas in bloom there.  They were enormous and gorgeous. 8-10 feet tall and just huge huge blooms. 

And I love my little roadrunner!  We saw a couple roadrunners at big bend down in Texas earlier this year which was super fun.  This one is mostly made out of necktie scraps leftover from the test tube/bee eye project.  

I really have fun making things, they scratch my itch for illuminated letters and symbolism while still being small. I hope folks that see the trunk show enjoy looking at it!